Installed UPR billet catch can "corvette/gto".

 

I've had a spare chrome STS-V wheel I snagged off of ebay sitting in the garage just in case I happen to damage one or need to use it short term. My other wheels aren't chrome, so I decided to try my hand at painting it using rattle can paint over black plastidip. I think it came out pretty well, but the silver coat has too much flake in it for my liking. I used some old cans of paint I had laying around from past projects. The silver was actually a 10 year old can of Duplicolor auto paint that I used to paint drop spindles for my old S10 Blazer. I finished with 2 coats of Krylon clear.

The powdercoat finish on the rest of my wheels was ruined by wheel acid at a car wash a while back, so I'm planning to buff the top layer off down to the black base and paint a thin coat of grey over for a hyperblack look and finish with 2k clear. This wheel was just a test run.

 

Years ago, I went through the acid phase and eventually ruined some wheels. At the time, I was using Prosoco Sure Klean 600 to remove the cement-like dust created by pads like the Hawk HP+. At the time, Sure Klean 600 was considered the cheaper and more effective alternative to Sonax. It worked pretty well... but it eventually found small pits in your powdercoat and then your wheels were done, cosmetically.

Nowadays, the gold standard is Iron-X. It's more effective than Sonax or Sure Klean 600 and is cheaper than Sonax. However, I and the majority of detailers recommend Adam's Deep Wheel Cleaner, which is about half the price and 90% as effective. Like Iron-X, it's clear coat safe and a lot of people use it (or Iron-X) to help dissolve iron particles in their paint before hitting the finish with a clay bar or nanoskin. It's one of my top 5 favorite cleaning supplies. If you combine it with a Wheel Woolies drill brush you can probably save an hour doing your wheels if you're an obsessive clean freak like me.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm curious what the formula is like for the Adams product. When I wash my car I generally don't use anything specialized for wheels, just what's left in the bucket after I've washed the rest and I use a wash mitt that's been demoted from paint duty. The acid incident happened when I opted to take the car to a drive through car wash (my paint was already hammered). I think the genius attendants either neglected to cut the acid or just not enough.

I run ceramic pads too, but I've never noticed anything embedded in the finish of the wheels. Perhaps that's because they were powder coated. When I respray them I may find that to be happening.

 

If you're not familiar with Sonax, Iron-X, or Adam's wheel cleaner, they're designed to break down ferrous particulate in brake dust. When they do, they change color dramatically and that color shift gives a positive visual indication that they're working. It's also fantastic for detailers since they can spray it on the paint and see if there's enough FOD embedded in the vehicle's clearcoat to make the color change happen. In that case it's time for a clay bar or nanoskin application.

Skip to 0:15 and then 1:15, paying attention to the darker inner barrel of the wheel:

I recommend you try one of these cleaners because even concentrated car soap doesn't do anything significant to brake dust. The only way to maintain the fragile piano black finish on my Forgestar F14s is to avoid scrubbing them, which grinds brake dust into the finish. I spray Adam's or Iron-X on my wheels, let sit for a minute or two, and then high pressure rinse. That eliminates major debris and probably 80% of the caked-on brake dust. Then one more application, this time agitating with the Wheel Woolies drill brush attachment (the flagged ends are key to avoiding scratches), and finally high pressure rinse.

 

I just ordered some Adam's. Of course, with the cold weather setting in, I'm not doing a whole lot of car washing any time soon, but I'll give the stuff a shot eventually.

As for today:
- The always exciting oil change.

- While I had the car up on the lift, confirmed that the front 8.8" bushings are looking a bit worse for wear, particularly the ones sandwiched between the diff ears and the CS mounting bracket. I've got a noticeable clunk every time I get on the gas, so I figured the bushings were allowing some movement. Ordered some new poly ones and a CS 8.8" diff block.

 

Finally got off my duff and Installed my new badges.

-Byron

 

Adam's wheel cleaner was the only thing I bought on Cyber Monday. 15% off and $5 shipping for a gallon. Still not cheap, but it should last me a lonnng time.

 

Gave it a good wash and vacume







108k miles daily driver, hard to keep this interior clean though

 

Bought this guy to replace my 112.

 

- Installed a new Creative Steel transmission mount. The old UUC (at least, I think it's UUC) mount was apparently not doing much anymore:



New CS mount installed:



The brackets are stainless, so it should stay nice and purty.

- Replaced the poly bushings on the front of the 8.8" with some new Steeda ones. I found a Black Friday deal on them, hence I went with Steeda rather than Prothane or Energy Suspension or whatever.

As I reported in my post a week ago, the old bushings were toast:



(At that point I had broken the bolts loose, but hadn't actually started lowering the front of the diff - you can already see the gap between the upper bushings and the ears of the diff.)



The Steeda bushings are a little different design. Rather than having 2 bushing halves, each with a smaller diameter protrusion that goes into the ear of the diff, the Steeda setup uses 3 separate bushings. There are the large diameter upper and lower bushings, and then a smaller diameter bushing that goes into the ear on the diff housing. It was a pretty damn tight fit, so hopefully it holds up nicely. I didn't take a picture of them installed - they look like new red bushings.

 

I'm in here to hear about the difference with your new trans mount, pls report back then...

U are using the oem prop shaft i see on pic, no vibs or issues, was interesting about the runout, didn t have a dial gauge somewhere in the corner of your garage???

Greetz
Ron

 

So far, so good. Not surprisingly, getting the transmission securely mounted and removing a bunch of play from the diff mounts makes the whole driveline feel smoother! I didn't realize the old transmission mount was in such bad shape; visually, it looked just fine, it wasn't until I started removing the two bolts that hold it to the tranny that I realized that upper plate was able to move independent of the rest of the mount.

I was hoping that the combination of a more securely mounted transmission and a proper connection between the shifter and the shift rod that goes the tranny would fix my inability to get into reverse, but unfortunately that's not the case.

Used stock driveshaft, shortened 1/2" to improve fitment with the 8.8" and CS adapter. I've never measured run-out, although I do have a dial indicator gauge somewhere; based on the video I've posted here before, it would certainly appear that I have some run-out in the transmission output.

I still have a VDC driveshaft, also shortened 1/2", and my intention is to re-install it. But for now, the rubber carrier bearing support keeps the vibration from being a problem, so the VDC driveshaft waits in my garage.

 

So far, so good. Not surprisingly, getting the transmission securely mounted and removing a bunch of play from the diff mounts makes the whole driveline feel smoother! I didn't realize the old transmission mount was in such bad shape; visually, it looked just fine, it wasn't until I started removing the two bolts that hold it to the tranny that I realized that upper plate was able to move independent of the rest of the mount.

I was hoping that the combination of a more securely mounted transmission and a proper connection between the shifter and the shift rod that goes the tranny would fix my inability to get into reverse, but unfortunately that's not the case.

Used stock driveshaft, shortened 1/2" to improve fitment with the 8.8" and CS adapter. I've never measured run-out, although I do have a dial indicator gauge somewhere; based on the video I've posted here before, it would certainly appear that I have some run-out in the transmission output.

I still have a VDC driveshaft, also shortened 1/2", and my intention is to re-install it. But for now, the rubber carrier bearing support keeps the vibration from being a problem, so the VDC driveshaft waits in my garage.

 

So whats the deal with the vibration? It seems like everyone that has a 8.8 in their cars have vibration issues weather it be stock driveshaft/poly carrier bearing/stock carrier bearing, DSS one piece (which I would expect anyways with it being long af).

 

The vibrations probably originate in the trans.

 

The source of my vibration seems to be at the transmission output, not the 8.8". There's some discussion in the 8.8" vibration thread (start at post 195 and go from there).

 

Ah okay I'll go give it a read. It just seems like everyone on the v1 facebook page with 8.8s has vibrations also. Thanks!

 

Participated in the local national day celebration and was part of the group that set the Guinness world record for most cars driving in a smiley face.

Had a great weekend, and the new badges are super sexy on the car.

-Byron

 

Now that is awesome! Where were you in the smiley face?